So, I bought this truck thinking I would keep it close to stock so its good and reliable.
So I didnt have to worry about oversize things prematurely wearing parts out. That isnt going to happen, and its going to get a 6" lift pretty soon. I want to do 37s or 40s but its really only a half ton. I should have bought a super duty to do that. I am going to keep this truck with some reasonable 35s. Anyways,

My question is the 3.55 rear end I have. I have a 5.0, 6 speed 4x4 truck. How will the gears be with 35s? Will I loose my last over drive gear? Will I need to gear it to more of a 4.10 or 4.56 to keep 6th useable? Or will it be fine?

Right now with the stock tires I have like a 235 on it. The truck looks like it is on stilts its terrible.

I dont do any towing with my truck. I just haul a couple dirt bikes around with it. Thats not a huge consideration at this point in time.

 

4.30 - 4.56 minimum

 

Not enough gear for 35's. I always wonder why people buy trucks and then do the most they can to spend a lot of money in order to reduce performance and gas mileage to make a "fashion statement". Changing gears in 2 axles costs a whole bunch of money.

Before proceeding, add up the costs of what you are proposing vs the increase in value of your truck (probably zero), and then add up the costs of losing at least 2-3 mpg over the lifetime of your truck.

Good luck,
George

 

can't say for sure, but you are going to down about 13% in gearing with the increase in size putting you at an effective ratio of about 3.15:1

you might find that 6th doesn't get used much on the hills.

if you find the need to regear, 4.10's would be just a tad shorter than the 3.55's with your 235's. but, if you are going to regear, go big or go home .. 4.30's or 4.56's or don't bother, IMO (+1 to Kemicalburns said)

 

4.56 would be the only way to go, my 3.73s with a 32.8" tire does okay but anything less and 6th would be pretty useless.

 

Or just lock out 6th gear with the toggle switch on the shifter. You will turn about 2100rpm in 5th at 70...which translates to about 74 with the tire size difference.

 

With how low first gear is, how much does it really matter? You won't use 6th as much but these trucks are pretty steep off the line to start with.

 

I ran 3.07s and later 3.73s on my TJ (190hp straight 6) with 35s. I lost OD on hill climbs. On flat terrain, OD was still very useful. What I lacked in gears, my 190HP engine did for me. Your 400 HP V8 should MORE THEN compensate for the gear. People claiming 4.56 gears MINIMUM are ****ing retarded wanna be gearheads who over complicate things. Now, IF you want your truck to be more peppy off the line, sure 4.56 gears will give you that. If you want LOW RPMs at highway speeds, you lose that w/ 4.56 gears. You do gain a better crawl ratio with 4.56 gears if you off road it/rock crawl with it. But, even that can be compensated for with a multi gear transfer case (not too sure how to go about doing an Atlas in a F150 w/ electric shifters but... with enough $$$ anything is possible).

 

Very interesting, thanks for all the perspectives. I did not mention that I do run 70-80 pretty regularly on i-5. I do not want to regear so maybe a nice 33 would be a little better than a 35 with out giving up too much.

 

33's would be better in every area except for looks. They won't look very good with 6" of lift.

 

I havent bought a lift yet, it could be a 4".

Really its hard to tell a difference between a 33x12.5 and a 35x12.5 in my opinion.




Although I did want a 6" and 35s, I would be money ahead if I did a leveling lift and just gnarly 285s or something. If I am already going to go lower, its not really what I want so maybe I would skip it all together and go do the leveling lift.


Decisions decisions!


If I did the 2" front level and 1" lift on the rear, what tire size would look best under it? Not stock size at 235 but I dont want it to be stuffed up there either?

 

33s are perfect with level.....but stay focused you really need a 12" Rize on 40s with 5.13 gears .....that's what I'd do......if my wife would let me

 

315/70/17's fit on mine with no rub at all!!!

 

I ran 33s on 20" rims my 05 w/o leveling kit. I had to trim the back plastic from the factory flare. Other then that, NO RUBBING.

My 09 w/ 20" rims and 35" tires and 6" Pro Comp lift rubs. Drives me insane... Part of it is whomever did the lift, did a **** POOR JOB. My brake lines have the adapter on them but, they are loose on both sides. My knobby tires rub the brake lines and those metal adapters. Then, it also has the extended flares on it. I'm pretty sure I get some rub from those. All of this was setup this way when I bought the truck. Had bald tires on it when I test drove it. Same size tires brand new and now it rubs everywhere. UUUGH!!!

 

That would be awesome! 40s is my favorite tire size. Unfortunately I dont know if the front end is strong enough for this. On the street, no problem, off road I dont trust be unless there upgraded axle shafts, a-arms etc. I also have no idea of a good solid axle swap for these yet, which I dont want to do in particular anyways.

Like I said, I should have bought a superduty but this is still a damn good truck and I like this body style more.

Now if I could get some super duty axles for this truck we would be in business.... Thats starting to get pretty expensive though lol.


Thats great news. Would you share a picture? Thanks.

Sorry to hear that, that would drive me nuts. Would you also provide pics? What rear end gearing do you have? How is it with the 35s?

I know you were protesting earlier and talking about the anaemic 4.0 running 35s. I had a TJ too with a 4.0 and the ax15 5 speed manual and ran 35s pretty easily with 3.73 rear end.

I also thought that running 35s with the 360 hp engine would be okay but I wanted to ask because I have never had a truck with two over drivers. 5 and 6th gears and I didnt know how it would react. 1st is pretty low and it shifts into 5th and 6th earlier than I really think is necessary anyways maybe 35s would fix that and it would be perfect??

I dont care about max tow capacity I dont tow anything anymore. I sold my 2001 F350 when I sold both my Jeeps. TJ on 35s and XJ on 38s and now my woman and I dirt bike and shoot and that is the extend of our hauling in this truck so I dont mind a little taller highway gears.

I just have not decided if what "meborder" (thanks for the statistic) said about the gear with a 35 effectively being reduced to a 3.15 woudl improve fuel economy with lower RPMS or make the engine stuggle a little. That 13% reduction would mean somewhere in the area of I figure (I could be wrong) about 140 RPMS less.

So that means in 6th at 60 with stock tires I ran 1500 RPMS even so with 35s cruise at 60 would be around 1360.


Which may not be a big deal. My dad has a 91 Chevy 1500 with a 350 and 700r4 and rear end has 3.07s but with a 4 speed tranny. It just kinda tugs around. I have towed many heavy things with it. It doesnt like towing heavier stuff but its always work so far.

Im having a hard time thinking 35s with make the truck unbearable and am seriously considering doing 35s and a 6" lift.